L3ND Upper-Layer Protocol Configuration

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Massive Data Centers (MDCs) which use upper-layer protocols such as BGP4 and other routing protocols may use the Layer-3 Neighbor Discovery Protocol, L3ND, [I-D.ymbk-idr-l3nd] to reveal the inter-device links of the topology. It is desirable for devices to facilitate the configuration parameters of those upper layer protocols to enable more hands-free configuration. This document defines a new L3ND PDU to communicate these Upper-Layer Protocol Configuration parameters.¶

2. Reading and Terminology

The reader is assumed to have read Layer-3 Neighbor Discovery [I-D.ymbk-idr-l3nd]. The terminology and PDUs there are assumed here.¶

Familiarity with the BGP4 Protocol [RFC4271] is assumed.¶

3. Upper-Layer Protocol Configuration PDU

To communicate parameters required to configure peering and operation of Upper-Layer Protocols at IP layer-3 and above, e.g., BGP sessions on a link, a neutral sub-TLV based Upper-Layer Protocol PDU is defined as follows:¶

 0                   1                   2                   3
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|  Version = 0  |    Type = 8   |         Payload Length        |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                               |   ULPC Type   |   AttrCount   |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                       Attribute List ...                      |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The Type and Payload Length are defined in [I-D.ymbk-idr-l3nd] apply to this PDU.¶

As the ULPC PDU may contain keying material, e.g. [RFC2385], it SHOULD BE over TLS.¶

Any keying material in the PDU SHOULD BE salted and hashed.¶

The BGP Authentication sub-TLV provides for provisioning MD5, which is a quite weak hash, horribly out of fashion, and kills puppies. But, like it or not, it has been sufficient against the kinds of attacks BGP TCP sessions have endured. So it is what BGP deployments use.¶

4. IANA Considerations

This document requests the IANA create a new entry in the L3DL PDU Type registry as follows:¶

        PDU
        Code      PDU Name
        ----      -------------------
          9       ULPC

This document requests the IANA create a registry for L3DL ULPC Type, which may range from 0 to 255. The name of the registry should be L3DL-ULPC-Type. The policy for adding to the registry is RFC Required per [RFC5226], either standards track or experimental. The initial entries should be the following:¶

        Value     Name
        -----     -------------------
         0      Reserved
         1      BGP
         2-255  Reserved

5. Acknowledgments

The authors thank Rob Austein and Sue Hares.¶

Authors' Addresses